Devices for dry nebulization of nebulizable material are known to the skilled person. In these devices, a nebulizable material, for example a powdered pharmaceutical preparation, is acted upon by a compressed gas or carrier gas in a specially provided chamber and, within this chamber, is converted to a state which is referred to as dry mist. The grains of the material are in this case present in a preferably uniform and finely dispersed form across the entire volume of compressed gas or carrier gas and are then discharged from the chamber in this state via suitable devices.
Such devices are used in particular to form pharmaceutical preparations for inhaled administration to spontaneously ventilating or ventilated patients. For use in spontaneously ventilating patients, the devices are generally connected to a suitable mouthpiece or a breathing mask. In invasive use, i.e. on ventilated patients, these devices are built into the respirator.
In the devices known hitherto for dry nebulization of nebulizable material, however, the problem generally found was that large amounts of pharmaceutical preparations could be delivered to the patient only, if at all, with considerable outlay in terms of equipment, for example using extensive mechanical dosing devices. Generally, the known devices were suitable for the nebulization of pharmaceutical quantities in the range from approximately 1 μg to approximately 20 mg. Pharmaceutical preparations of which large amounts, for example in the gram range, have to be administered to the lungs within a long time period are what are called lung surfactant preparations. Administration of a large amount of such lung surfactants is necessary in acute situations.
In conventional dry nebulizers, a problem generally found was that the nebulizable material, which is present as a loose charge in a storage container, for example a commercially available pharmaceutical vial, tends to agglomerate, by reason of its surface quality and/or its moisture content, resulting in blockage of a comparatively narrow aperture cross section of the vial. Such agglomeration also occurs in lung surfactant preparations. Such blockages can normally be obviated only by suitable mechanical means, in order to ensure a continuous dosing of the nebulizable material over quite a long period of time. In addition, agglomerated particles of nebulizable material, for example lung surfactant preparations, are not generally able to access the lungs.
In emergency treatment of patients in intensive care in particular, it is necessary to ensure rapid and high-dose administration of nebulizable material, in a form accessible to the alveoli, into the lungs with a constant dosage, in rapid sequence and over a period of several minutes. However, in the prior art, such administration was possible, if at all, only with considerable outlay in terms of equipment.